Chapter 5: Bruces Erection Problem

Saturday morning Danny arrived at Johns as usual. They sat at the kitchen table to have their cup of coffee. Halfway through, Danny’s phone rang. When he answered it, it was Lucy on the phone. ‘Is John with you?’ she asked. When he told her, ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘Can you put your phone on speaker.’

‘Hi, you two,’ she said, ‘By this morning I still hadn’t come on. So, I did a home pregnancy test.’ You could have heard a pin drop. ‘It was positive.’ she cried out excitedly. After they had both congratulated her, she said, ‘I rang the Doctor, who said that it was still too soon to be absolutely certain, as it’s only seven weeks since my last period.’

‘But he’s made an appointment to see me a week on Monday to do his own test then.’ ‘That’s wonderful,’ Danny told her. ‘We’ll all keep our fingers crossed.’

As they finished their coffee, John had a big beam on his face. ‘Isn’t that wonderful news,’ he said. ‘It looks very positive,’ Danny said cautiously. Then he added with a grin, ‘It must be those extra special sperms I injected.’ ‘Do you really think so?’ John asked. ‘Well, they have only got this close since we started including yours.’ Danny said. ‘See I told you, you’re not past it yet.’

‘Last month was bad enough waiting,’ John said, ‘This month is going to be worse.’ Danny got up and went out back to do some gardening. John decided he would go shopping. ‘I feel too excited to sit still.’ he said as he went out.

Not long after he had gone, Danny had a text. ‘Hi,’ it said, ‘My name is Bruce, I’m fourteen. You sent me a text recently about Robert. Can I still take you up on your offer?’

‘Yes,’ Danny texted back, he gave him John’s address. ‘Are you anywhere near this address and how soon would you like to come?’ ‘I live fifteen minutes away,’ he replied. ‘I can be there then.’ ‘It should be ok,’ Danny said, ‘I’ll just have to check. I’ll get back to you in a few minutes.’

He rang John and explained he had had an s.o.s. for a visit. ‘No problem,’ John said, ‘I’ll have a long coffee break when I finish my shopping. I’ll see you after you text clear as usual,’ he said as he hung up.

Danny texted Bruce. ‘All ok, see you soon, Danny.’ ‘Thanks, I’ll be there in ten minutes.’ he replied with a thumbs up.

Danny went and put his gardening things away, then returned to the kitchen. He washed his hands then put the kettle on. Just as it boiled, the front doorbell rang.

Answering the door, he found an overweight boy a few inches shorter than himself. ‘Hi Bruce, I’m Danny,’ he said offering him his hand. Bruce gave him a nervous smile as he shook it, and said, ‘Hi, thanks for seeing me.’ ‘You were quick,’ Danny said. ‘I took a chance and started right away.’ he told him.

‘Come in,’ Danny said and led him through to the kitchen. ‘Take a seat,’ he said indicating the table. He made them each a coffee then sat opposite him. ‘Let me give you some information first,’ Danny said, ‘Then you can decide if you want to stay or not.’

‘Ok, thank you.’ Bruce replied. Danny explained about his counselling. ‘I got into it accidentally,’ he told him, ‘Because I was counselled after I was raped.’ As Bruce looked startled, he continued. ‘Afterwards, I counselled all my rapist’s other victims. I found I was good at it, so I’ve kept doing it.’

‘Now, usually it takes quite a while to get someone to admit to being raped. People tend to be too embarrassed or think they are to blame, or even both. Because of how I got your name and phone number, I already know that you have been raped and by whom.’

‘So, all that remains now is to tell you what I can do to help you. If you decide to stay as I hope you will, I will first get to know all about you whilst you get to feel at ease with me. Only when you are completely at ease with me, will we talk about what happened to you and how it is affecting you. Then we can decide what we can do about it together.’

‘You should know that you can get up and leave any time you want, you don’t have to say why, just go. If you’re not happy being here with me, there’s no point continuing, we can’t succeed.’

‘The other thing is, no one will ever hear about anything we say to each other here today unless you tell them yourself.’

‘When we’ve finished our coffee, if you want to stay, we’ll go through to the lounge. You can relax whilst I ask you all about yourself and your life. Do you have any questions?’

‘You said Robert had his testicles removed, how did that happen?’ ‘I’ll tell you all about it once you’re relaxed and we’ve sorted you out.’ Danny said. ‘Ok, thanks,’ Bruce replied. ‘I’d like to stay please.’

They went through to the lounge. ‘Take your shoes off and lie on the settee.’ Danny told him. Once he was comfy, Danny sat at the side. ‘In a moment,’ he said, ‘I’ll ask you to turn over. Then whilst I ask you questions, I’ll massage your back from head to toe to get you feeling at ease with me. If anything bothers you at any time, just call out stop. If I ask you anything you find too embarrassing to answer at that moment, just say pass and we’ll leave it until later, ok?’ ‘Ok,’ Bruce replied thinking that sounds easy and rather nice.

‘Turn over whenever you’re ready.’ Danny told him. Bruce turned right away. Danny massaged his head for a moment or two, then moved down onto his well-padded shoulders. Although he was overweight, he felt quite strong. Danny got the impression he was quite quiet and shy too.

‘What hobbies and sports do you have?’ he asked as he moved down his back. ‘I like roller skating,’ Bruce said, ‘I swim occasionally, and I like cycling. But I play a lot of video games as you might have guessed from my figure.’

‘How often do you swim?’ Danny asked as he massaged over his waist. ‘Probably about once a fortnight.’ Bruce replied. ‘Where do you go to swim?’ As Danny massaged over his cheeks his body went rigid. ‘I’m sorry about that,’ he said, ‘It wasn’t you.’ ‘I know,’ Danny said, ‘Don’t worry about it. Nothing in here is going to hurt you.’ As he moved onto the back of Bruce’s thighs he relaxed and answered, ‘The local pool mostly, but I have swum in a lake too.’

‘Tell me about your home, what sort is it and who lives there with you.’ ‘I live with my mum and dad and two sisters in a three-bedroom semi-detached house.’ Bruce told him.

Danny reached his feet and started back up. ‘How do you all get on?’ he asked. ‘Pretty well,’ Bruce answered. ‘My sisters who are nine and ten quarrel with each other often, but it’s never anything serious or lasts very long. They’re both always ok with me and with mum and dad.’

As Danny approached his cheeks again, he felt him stiffen up, but not as bad. ‘Apart from me, you and Robert,’ Danny asked as he moved over them quickly, ‘Who knows what happened to you?’ ‘No one, as far as I know.’ Bruce told him.

Moving on up his back, Danny asked, ‘Why didn’t you tell your mum or dad?’ ‘When it first happened,’ he said giving a shiver, ‘I was too frightened of what Robert threatened to do to me. Afterwards I was far too embarrassed to tell anyone.’

‘That’s perfectly normal,’ Danny said as he massaged his head. ‘I can tell you that I was exactly the same. So was everyone else I’ve counselled since. It was often harder to get them to open up about what happened than it was to solve it for them.’

‘Turn over now.’ When Bruce was settled, he said, ‘How are you finding it?’ ‘It’s not as bad as I imagined.’ he said with a brief smile. ‘I’m not the ogre you thought I might be then?’ Danny said with a grin. Bruce blushed. Plainly he had had a thought along those lines.

‘Now I’m going to massage just the same down your front as I’ve just done with your back,’ he said. ‘Apart from the odd question about your attack, I’m still concentrating on getting to know about you personally.’

As he massaged the front of his head he asked, ‘When you go skating, swimming or cycling, who do you go with?’ ‘Usually on my own,’ Bruce said as Danny massaged his chest, also well padded, ‘I’m a bit of a loner. Although my pal Lucas from school does come with me sometimes. We play video games together too.’